USB replacing Firewire in Camcorders?

Question

My camcorder from 2003 only transfers video perfectly with Firewire. But USB is way more widespread than Firewire and I'm seeing some new laptops lacking a Firewire port.

So are new camcorders now able to transfer video perfectly with USB? My old camcorder can do it but its either poor quality or with no sound.

Answer 1

I think only the new HD camcorders. You would think that the camcoder and the PC manufactuers would talk to each other, most people don't read the small print in their maual saying you need a firewire connection.

Answer 2

Firewire and USB 2 have approximately the same bandwidth, so data transfer rate isn't an issue.  The issue is the medium you're transferring from.  Hard drives can be stopped and started and you can pick up the data transfer where you left off - the only concern is being able to do it in a reasonable time, so USB is fine.  When you're transferring from tape you don't have the same ability to stop and start - once you've started you need to keep going.  USB isn't good at this because it's controlled by the CPU.  If a higher priority task comes along the processor will stop managing the USB, but the tape will keep going and you'll lose data.  Firewire works differently.  First of all each firewire device shares the responsibility for managing the data transfer, so you're not going to be badly affected by the processor load.  The other thing is that firewire has something called isochronous mode, which guarantees that the necessary bandwidth will continue to be available.  

MiniDV camcorders still have a lot going for them, and many modern high def camcorders use tape, so no, USB isn't replacing firewire in camcorders.